After months of uncertainty, the “Big 4” sewing pattern brands — Simplicity, McCall’s, Vogue, and Butterick — have been saved. Rubelmann Capital and longtime Simplicity executive Abbie Small are leading a relaunch of the historic pattern company, preserving jobs, archives, and the last U.S. tissue pattern presses while modernizing for a digital future.
In this podcast interview, Abbie Small explains the management buyout, with Rubelmann Capital, of the Big 4 sewing pattern brands.
The Big 4 legacy sewing pattern brands have been sold to Rubelmann Capital in partnership with existing management and led by Abbie Small.
The owner of the Big 4 sewing pattern makers was spun off from its U.K. parent company in May and is now being sold at liquidation.
Design Group Americas (DGA), parent company of the Big 4 sewing pattern brands, announced on Friday that it has voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The legacy sewing pattern brands Simplicity, Butterick, McCalls, and Vogue, commonly referred to as the Big 4, have been sold to a liquidator.
The McCalls printing plant in Manhattan, Kansas, will shut down at the end of 2021. The plant, currently employs 85 people and prints and folds sewing pattern tissue.
The McCall printing facility in Manhattan, Kansas has been offline since mid-October due to a network outage causing printing delays for indie pattern designers.